SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- My car has been "in the shop" off and on (more on then off) for the past seven months for transmission problems. Once my son picked it up for me and he didn't get more than a mile away before he had to take it back. I was assured the transmission was in working order.

Finally, my car stalled on the Interstate and I had to have it towed home. I was called and kept up-to-date at this point. They took it to a Volkswagen dealership since it still had the factory warranty. Next I hear, through my son, that they called and said I owe CarMax thousands because the warranty didn't cover it. I called and left messages that were unanswered. I did not give permission to spend that kind of money. CarMax has ignored me for more than a month.

I sent a registered letter to their corporate office and to the local dealership's General Manager requesting copies of the repairs made on my car and a written statement of what they felt I needed to do to get my car back.

I never heard from anyone at their corporate office or local manager. I then finely got a phone message from their service manager saying he wanted to chat with me about the car and he understood I wanted some paperwork. At this point, I do not trust this company and will not discuss this on the phone. I left the repair manager a message to that effect and I again requested a written statement and copies of my repairs. His response was a message saying he wants me to call him about the car. His messages do not match my questions and requests. I called again requesting the repair bills and statement of what they want from me. I left my work fax number. I do find it peculiar that there is no email address to contact the local store and in their phone directory there is no option to talk to the general manager. And also, it appears, they do not want anything in writing.

I cannot resolve this without the information I am requesting. I have bought two other cars from CarMax and never had any issues with them until this car. I am a widow of a disabled veteran with a small income. I do not have the recourses to get another car. I am walking, taking the bus, and relying on friends to get me to the grocery store. This is causing me great anxiety which is affecting my health, and causing me to miss important evening meetings related to my job.

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Carmax, the Run-Around, & a Lost Car Title

Posted by Mark on 02/11/2013

Rating: 1/51

NORCROSS, GEORGIA -- We were recently at the store in Norcross, GA. It was very unpleasant. I had gone in to look/buy a 2010 Dodge Caliber. It took about 5 minutes to find the vehicle we wanted since we had done some research on their website prior. We sat down with the salesman Keith [snip]. The first day we spent 5 hours there. We went through everything paperwork, down payment, insurance. You name it we did it. He kept running back and forth, and coming back with "The financial department needs this, and this". He was extremely UN-organized. When it was all over with we had given him everything. Just as we went into the signing room he pulled us out of the signing room and said "Carmax" would not let us have the car until my DL had been changed over to GA. Now..I can agree that was my fault, but he had seen my DL at the very beginning he couldn't tell me this before I wasted all that time, and we had gone through all of that? Well I left the dealership and the next day I went and got my correct DL. So at that point there was nothing else that needed to be done. I had kept in contact with him every single day since he had said he would hold the vehicle for me. He assured me when we came in again that it would be a very quick process and nothing else would happen. Well we showed up a 2nd day, and he had to redo the paperwork. After telling us he wouldn't have to, that everything was finished with the Caliber. That took almost 3 hours. The sales person was extremely UN-knowledgeable and did not answer many questions. When we asked him why he kept re-submitting the information for the loan approvals he said he had to do that every time he had to correct something on the paperwork. All the mistakes on the paperwork was his fault. I was sitting behind him in the office looking at his computer screen and I corrected him several times on things that were wrong. Finally when the paperwork was done and we went into the signing room we sat there for almost a hour. No one came over people kept looking at us and finally I asked, "What is going on"? No one said anything. Finally someone came over, sat down and said.."We are sorry we cannot find the Calibers Title. We are looking for it.." Now..we had spoken to our sales person several times we were under the impression the deal was done, then when we get to the final stages the car title is not available. My sales person was not even going to tell me this until I asked him. Let me add to this my Grandmother was with me she is elderly, has some health problems..but she was there helping me find a good vehicle since she has had some dealings with dealerships, and she knows how they work. My grandmother had to ask the sales person 3 times, "What was going on with the car, and why was it taking so long"? He kept dodging the question and would not answer her. Finally he told her, and she asked him the same thing we did, "How can you have a vehicle for sale on your car lot and have no idea where the title is"? Now out of all of those days that I spoke with him, and the first day of going through the paperwork I was told all of this was done. It wasn't anything of the sorts. I would think if he knew we were coming back and had shown that much interest in that vehicle he would have made sure everything was together. To top it all off shortly after that happened, he told us he had to go home. His wife was there to pick him up. So he handed us off to another salesman. Yes the other salesman was great, but we had to go through everything all over again. To top it all off..They had no other calibers, and told us they could have one shipped from another Carmax but it would not be there until tomorrow. So we ended up having to choose something else off of the lot. We did not leave the dealership until 10:30 P.M. that night. All over Carmax there were signs up saying, "You can have a stress-free, enjoyable, good price, buying experience." We got none of those things. Also the commercials that say, "The way car buying should be". After that I will probably never go through any of that ever again. I walked away with a car I do like, but somewhat feel like we settled because we could not get our first choice. The car is a great car, but it was not exactly what we wanted. I am very unhappy about this whole situation. I've never had a experience like this in my life. I feel lied to, and ran-around.

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Lack of intelligence and outright lying

Posted by McGuiver on 03/09/2010

CALIFORNIA -- Where can I start this nightmare???

First, I had the funds to purchase the vehicle I ALWAYS wanted, BRAND NEW, CASH MONEY... I found the vehicle listed online at CarMax in Huston Tx. After about a dozen calls and three days of dealing with that dealership to get pictures of the described vehicle with no luck, I asked for someone to go out and describe the vehicle to me, I got two hang-ups from them. I guess they were to busy for a $40,000.00 cash sale. I finally asked for the GM and DEMANDED the for him to go out to the vehicle and describe it to me since they were "TO BUSY" to post the pictures.

I liked the vehicle so paid the $599.00 to have it transferred to California. I was told it would take 28 days, FIRM. I said that was fine, for the funds for the sale were also 28 days out. It arrived 14 days early and I was treated like I was lying about the funds and was asked for PROOF that the funds were soon to be available.

I showed the deposit receipt for almost $94,000.00 and the funds would be available in 5 days. I was asked to give a check and it would be held for the five days and then deposited for the sale of the vehicle. THEY LIED..... The check was deposited the SAME DAY... and it BOUNCED TO THE MOON and completely RUINED my vacations because my account was in a multi-thousand dollar NEGATIVE amount... PLUS the day I did pick the vehicle up it looked like S@#$, I asked for it to be detailed and it was nothing more than rinsed off and not even
vacuumed out.

I was then apologized to PROFUSELY and PROMISED it would never happen again and CarMax, I was then asked to provide a cashiers check for the amount since the check bounced (CarMax's fault). I went to my bank and acquired the cashiers check as requested. In the infinite wisdom of CarMax, they REDEPOSITED the check when I had ALREADY taken the funds out in a cashiers check... SO, this check has now bounced for a second time...

My checking account, for the second time, is now over $50,000.00 over drawn and checks are bouncing all over the place. I spent several hours on the phone and at my banks ATM doing damage repair for what CarMax had done to my account and had to re- deposit the cashiers check to keep other check from bouncing, namely checks written to my daughter that they, employed by other banks, had any holds waived. Had these checks bounced they would have lost their jobs due to CarMax's stupidity.

CarMax Modesto PROMISES they will reimburse me ALL expenses... BUT what I am saying WHAT ABOUT THE INCONVENIENCE AND THE DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER AND THE REPEATED TRIPS TO MY BANK AND THE "HOURS" SPENT ON THE PHONE WITH MY BANK AND CARMAX FOR THEIR SCREW-UPS? PLUS, WHAT IF MY DAUGHTERS HAD LOST THEIR JOBS BECAUSE OF THIS?

Total tally:

Pictures of the truck... three days
Arriving 14 days early and demanding proof of the money...
Received the vehicle looking like S@#$...
CarMax Deposited a check that was supposed to be HELD for five days....
Demanded a Cashiers Check THEN REDEPOSITED THE ORIGINAL CHECK...
Almost causing the termination of my 3 daughters from their jobs as bank tellers...

Can I express how angry I am with CarMax??????????????
Their incompetence is not measurable......
CarMax must start some MAJOR damage control RIGHT NOW!!!!

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Got the Run Around and a Low Ball Offer for my Car

Posted by stevemcmahon40455 on 12/12/2014

Rating: 2/51

BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA -- I went to the Boynton Beach FL CarMax for a quick sale of my Kia Forte after a break up w/ my ex in order to sell my Kia Forte that he had been driving. Because of a convoluted situation where he owes me 18 months of rent and bills but did some remodeling work in the house, I agreed to sell the car which I bought new and give him the surplus money after the car loan was paid off up to 5 grand.

Well, they offered me a very low ball offer. I sold them a 2012 Kia forte w/ 44k miles in excellent condition which they offered me $9000.00 for. They're selling 2010 Kia Forte's with 56k miles that can't be in better condition for 13k as of this writing, so it was definitely a low ball offer. The only reason I took it is because I wasn't getting the money from the car so I didn't really care. In fact because I was giving my ex the money it kind of was worthwhile to watch him walk away with less. If it hadn't been for that little twist of fate where he got less money I'd have waited and sold it privately for 12K. But I had no horse in the race so the quicker the better. And he wasn't going to offer me anything to improve his lot. If he'd have offered me a couple thousand and gotten a private loan he'd have been able to take over the note himself but it is what it is.

Anyway I sat in the caramel office for hours while the guy I dealt with went off showing cars to other people. then I finally went off to drop my ex at the rental car place, came back and saw the lowball offer and said hell with it just accept it since I'm not making a nickel off it anyway. Oh the car has brand new tires and tinted windows on it too which the windows were 150 and the tires 600 bucks alone.

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Carmax in Brandwine, MD

Posted by L.Davis on 07/26/2014

Rating: 1/51

BRANDYWINE, MARYLAND -- I am so disappointed in my first experience with Carmax at the Brandywine, Md location. They did not meet my expectations at all. When I first arrived, no salesmen came to help me so that I can check out the vehicle that I found online prior to arriving. They just sent me over to the appraisal section and told me the person that I spoke to over the phone would be with me shortly.That person never came over to help. I waited an hour and a half to get car appraised by the way. I had to actually go over back to the front desk to ask if someone could help me so that I could check out the car that I was interested in. When someone did, then we walked around for about 10 min to discover the car was no longer there. Then we had to go back inside to check the stock # and actually find where the vehicle was. The salesman assisting had issues getting into computer, left the station for about 20 minutes and during that time he had been chatting w/ co-workers, while I sat there waiting. He finally came back got into system and found that car had already been sold. Then my car finally got appraised and the gentleman appraising it informed me that they do not offer Kelley blue book value. He appraised my car for $2500 less than what the Kelley blue book value was in poor condition.That was huge disappointment. After that, I went back to speak w/ person assisting me with trade in, and basically he became very short and unhelpful with trying to continue with process of trading in my vehicle. I decided it wasn't the time to continue w/ process, the salesmen said okay and didn't seem concerned at all with helping me stay there and make the trade. I was there a total of two and half hours, and it was a complete disappointing waste of my time.

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Broken and Out of Money!

Posted on 10/24/2013

Rating: 1/51

VIRGINIA -- I have purchased two different cars from CarMax that have somehow ended up breaking down after 6 months. The first one was in and out of the shop a few times a month. The end result was 3 catalytic converters died; my muffler crumbled to pieces, and my ball joint was so old the mechanic told me I was lucky to still be alive. One time I had my car in the shop at CarMax and an employee stole multiple belongings out of my car that were never able to be returned. When I asked about trading my car in because I had enough, I was told they would only give me $4,000.

I complained and complained until they raised it to $6,000. I am now $14,000 in debt with my last car and now this car that I bought after. When I called CarMax they pretty much told me I was out of luck or could trade this car in for another but that would possibly make me a good $20,000+ in debt. I will soon be left with no car, no money to fix my car, and no money to get a new car. If this wasn’t the second car I had bought from CarMax I wouldn’t be so mad but it is. I am officially left high and dry. I work 13 hours a day to be able to afford my car but it has now left me unable to feed myself half the time.

This is unbelievably ridiculous that I have been through all of this with no help from CarMax!! I have looked into legal advice but figured I would contact someone higher than a store manager. I have wasted almost 2-3 years’ worth of money on broken cars from CarMax. I am not happy!!!

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So Carmax wrote me a bad check for $25,000.00

Posted by Infidel on 02/07/2011

PLANO, TEXAS -- Took a SL500 to Carmax in Plano, TX to sell. Got $25,000.00 for it. Took the deal. Went through all the paperwork, signed in all the places told, got a check (they call draft)and left. I deposit the check a couple days later, and a week after that, I get a call from my bank that the check was returned.

I ask if its stamped NSF. Bank officer says strange, it doesn't have anything stamped on it. So off to call Carmax. Of course this all occurs during the snow storm that hit during Super Bowl. The Plano office is closed due to weather. I call corporate. They are worthless. Finally after I threaten to call the local DA's office and State Attorney Generals office I get a call back from the finance manager at the Plano Carmax.

He goes on to tell me how he saw the mistake, but had no way to contact me. (BS). Long story short, they put a stop payment on my check because where he says that where I was directed to sign the title, was in the wrong spot. So after me telling him what I thought and it was all BS, he could have called or tried, he said he'd see if the Houston Carmax could overnite me a check. I get my bank officer on the phone (3 way) and have the bank officer give the Carmax manager the banks address to deposit the check to rather than to me and then to the bank. The bank is pissed I have a bad check of $25,000.00 that got returned, so I want them to know it isn't my fault. Everything I did was in good faith.

So ask the manager, why are you overnighting me a new check if my title is still incorrect. His response, "I hope you'll work with us".

I'm still waiting on that check.

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Abuse Of Patriot Act. The Manager At The Dealership Wants You To Sign Credit Application Before You Test Drive. What A Bog

Posted by imperial357 on 09/24/2010

ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA -- [snip] (Manager) at CARMAX 4100 Inland Empire Ontario CA wanted me to sign a credit application anyway, falsely claiming "it's required by CARMAX to test drive there autombiles since I test drove an auto 2 mths ago. [snip] please note that there is no verse in the Patriot Act that I can find requiring me to fill out a credit application, or allowing dealers to run credit checks on you when you bring your own car financing or want to test drive an auto.

You are misleading the your own sales personnel by training them wrongly. Your bogus claim sounds believable. The manager at Carmax was asked by me to show me the exact section of the Patriot Act requires them to make you fill out a credit application when you have your own financing or TEST drive and auto, and collect my Social Security number, and run your credit report.

Since [snip] claimed it's required, they should be able to show you the verbiage. Hint for Manager the Patriot Act (H. R. 3162), Section 326 "Verification of identification" requires banks and financial institutions to verify your ID before you open an account. [snip] since I am not opening an account with Carmax dealership and [snip] hint Carmax is not a bank, you don't need you to fill out a credit application or a Patriot Act form to test drive get that out of your head.

The Patriot Act form I filled out for example are my mortgage only asks for your loan number and driver's license number, not your SS#, and it does not say "Credit Application" on it [snip] you get my drift here. The Patriot Act specifically calls out driver's licenses or passports for ID verification. Nothing more. Please Don't fool me or any other people into filling out the credit app to test drive your RANGE ROVER or any auto. But why all the lies [snip] shame on you working for a big organization like Carmax! I need an apology from you Micheal!

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Bait and Switch from the Service Dept.

Posted by town and country on 07/22/2010

GLENCOE, ILLINOIS -- Upon a recent purchase of a 2008 Town and Country Mini Van from the Glencoe Carmax, I had my own mechanic look the vehicle over. He commented that the air filter was dirty and that the brakes were down to 4 mm and would need replacement sooner than I would like. He suggested asking Carmax to take care of these 2 items especially considering the cost of the vehicle.
I spoke to Carmax within the 5 day purchase period and explained what my mechanic had stated.
I was told (or at least given the impression) that they would make good on both the brakes and the air filter. An appointment was set and I assumed all was well until I arrived this morning for my appointment.
The mechanic informed me that the brakes were fine as far as he was concerned and that they didn't have the air filter in stock.
Why didn't they call me and save me the 40 minute trip to their facility. I told the head of service that this had been arranged over a week ago. Why didn't they have filter ready?
I spoke with the corporate office and the customer service representative agreed that I was definitely mislead into thinking that the brakes would be covered. However, he would not honor the service.
I asked what happened to the good old days of the customer being right and honoring one's word. I was simply given a lame response of "I'm sorry and I understand how you would have assumed the brakes would be done". Also, I was told that the filter was to be sent to another location and that I could pick it up there.
Thanks Carmax. This is the second and last vehicle I will purchase from your company and the last time I will refer colleagues and friends to your dealerships.
That $190.00 brake job that you promised but later refused will cost much more to you in the long run in lost sales.
Too bad customer service has gone by the wayside.

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Horrible price/service/product

Posted by CrippledKnight on 06/25/2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL, ALABAMA -- I bought a 2004 Mustang V6 from these ruffians... Worst thing I could have ever done.

- I was eager to buy the car "My Mistake" which made me sign fast. I did not look through the options properly and it stated that the car had cruise control on it... when it didn't... I went to them a few months afterwards to claim it but they told me that they would charge an extra $200.00... an extra $200.00!!! After they overcharge you for the regular car, they charged me for the features, they wanted to charge me again!

- The clutch was worn out, the engine had lost horsepower that could not be fixed with any gas cleaners, treatment or filters, the driver side window got damaged, The car's Radio malfunctioned when reading CDs, The Rack & Pinion had to be replaced because I was having problems steering. Turns out that the power steering pump was damaged too. Then I went to complain about the clutch, the idiots told me it was engine sound... the clutch. These people know NOTHING about cars, they just rip you off and get off with their overly expensive price... I really wonder, if they inspect the car... how come MY car had so many issues? I can bet you they only Carfax it and they go with whatever Carfax says. I don't think they spend a dime inspecting cars... How could they fully inspect a car when they miss out on ALL that I mentioned + they miss out that the car has cruise control on it... HOW?! They did not helped me with the clutch problem sine they told me the car was... "fine"... I found out I did their no haggle price for $3,000 more of what the car was worth...

- Please, don't buy from them... do your research & look for another used car. Or you know what? Buy a new one, because buying a used car from CarMax is going to be a heck of a lot more than a new one.... They charge you extra for doing something they don't do... which is inspect the car...

- I implore you to go somewhere else, don't give into their hype, I'm a serious person and I try not to overreact, but I lost thousands of dollars due to this & this is the only review I can make...

- I finished trading off the car, losing some money, but hey, I got a way better car that has given me no issues so far...